Interviews

Anti-Flag

Interview with Chris #2 on Mar 5, 2006 by Archive Bot

For over a decade, Anti-Flag has been spreading messages of peace and unity, empowering young punk rockers and straight up pissing people off.  Now they’ve been to congress, shot the breeze with Michael Moore and are gaming up to release their newest record, “For Blood and Empire” on RCA Records. Chris #2 donated some of his time to talk to me about what matters to the band; the political and social issues that drive their lyrics and their ability to keep fighting for change.  After forty minutes of talking to #2 I felt as though maybe I should go save the world or something.  Instead, I grabbed a root beer and re-read this interview. 
 
By: Katie Ellsweig

 
Katie: Anti-Flag is not a form of entertainment, but a vehicle to make people think.  Is it possible to be both? In retrospect, how is Anti-Flag both?
 
Chris #2: The impact on my life whether it be social consciousness or just political activism as a whole was delivered to me via entertainment, via music.  When I first heard a band like The Dead Kennedy’s, I was so charged by the sound of it that it made me want to search to find out why I was charged by it.  Sort of like a snowball effect.  Once I started to delve into what fueled them as a band, it opened my eyes to a whole other side of the world that I hadn’t seen before.  I really think music has that power.  Leaving punk and going to reggae makes you think of Bob Marley and that guy had assassination attempts on his life because of politics.  That’s obviously impacted through music and entertainment. I think the two go hand in hand.  How are we both? I don’t know if I would consider us entertainment other than we play music that we feel is passionate because we’re passionate about the things that we write about.  At our shows we try to create an environment that doesn’t exist outside of that show. We try to make sure that what you look like, your color of skin, sexual preference or gender doesn’t matter.  The invisible things that separate us in every day life go away when you walk into an Anti-Flag show.
 
Katie: A lot of people tend to think that Anti-Flag is passionate about politics and only politics.  I hardly believe that’s true.  What are some of your other passions in life?
 
Chris #2: Well obviously music.  We spend every day of our lives dealing with the music side of things. Beyond that, when I was growing up I wanted to go to school and be an art teacher. I enjoy the visual and artistic side of things and I think that if you sort of scratch the surface past being a political band, it’s all there.  We have a passion to travel; that’s why we tour so much!
 
Katie: Beyond music and beyond record labels, the members of Anti-Flag are people, and people tend to change over the years. From touring the world over the years, how have you grown and changed?
 
Chris #2: What I’ve learned has crept its way into the song writing.  I feel that we were so specific in our issues and we were so blindsided by current events that were happening right at home that the song in its lifespan was hurt because of that. Now I think that seeing all these things, I have the ability to write a song that may last longer than any band I’m ever in.  As a person, I’ve learned a lot about myself and what I’m willing to do to have people not only hear the song but also hear the messages.  It’s like when we have the discussion about whether or not to do the warped tour and lend ourselves to a corporately sponsored tour when we are staunchly against that. You need to figure out when you’re bending and when you’re breaking.  For us, the path we have chosen is to use opportunities that we’re faced with and exploit them for the ideals we’re trying to let the world hear.
 
Katie: What sort of discussion did the band have prior to the Warped Tour?
 
Chris #2: I mean, the first and main discussion we had was the first time we did the Warped Tour.  We played two shows on it in 1999.  There were people that wanted to do more and really give that tour a worthwhile spot and people that felt like the people that were going to be at the tour weren’t going to care about the things we have to say.  The discussion becomes a matter of how optimistic you want to be.  If we play a show on the tour and there are 10,000 people there and one person picks up our literature and realize they can do something then it was worth it. Never before did we do a tour where we met so many people young and old that said they’ve never heard the things we’re saying and they’re willing to take action.  I know first hand that it works and it has worked for Anti-Flag.
 
Katie: I understand that Anti-Flag supports PETA.  I’m not going to ask you why you think animal rights are important because you can go to Peta2.com to find that out.  My question is why do you think so many people disrespect PETA and what they do? 
 
Chris #2: I think that because PETA is a collective people will say that one voice speaks for the entire organization.  So, if someone somewhere sticks a PETA sticker somewhere they’re not supposed to, and then PETA gets a bad rep.  I feel that people will take certain issues that are done in the name of that organization to heart. The goal of handing people information and having them make up their own mind is why we support PETA.  That’s why our records sound the way they sound and they we have such an issue with the current avenues where people get their media.  You’re not getting all sides of a story and therefore you can’t make a conscious decision because you’re not well informed. That’s why I think that pamphlets about vegetarianism or veganism should be handed out at every punk rock show whether you agree with it or not.  That counteraction is what we need to be doing.
 
Katie: With that said, is there a line that Anti-Flag won’t cross? How is that line defined and are there any subjects that the band stays away from? 
 
Chris #2: It’s difficult.  We’ve butted heads with a lot of people, particularly in the scene and in bands we’ve played with about whether or not someone should be allowed to enter a show wearing a shirt with a swastika on it, and whether or not that person should have their heads kicked in.  I personally believe in free speech so therefore I believe that everyone has a right to whatever they want to including “Hail Hitler.” Do I think that person should get their head kicked in for it? No. The same way I feel that a person wearing a George Bush t-shirt with devil horns should walk into a bar in Texas and not get his head kicked in.  Is there ever a point where censoring and stifling is ok?  I had someone ask me if I think it’s okay for someone to wear a Nazi t-shirt, then what about a shirt with child pornography on it. That’s different; that’s illegal.  We are always on the side of free speech.
 
Katie: You guys are down with Michael Moore.  Have you ever met him? What are your thoughts on his current project?
 
Chris #2: We met him on our last tour of the states.  He was speaking in the same city that we were playing and we ended up playing “This Land is Your Land” acoustic on his stage.  We also performed that same song in Pittsburgh when he came though.  We’ve been in contact with him here and there.  He’s made a lot of impact and brought a lot of issues to the forefront that we haven’t talked about.  He gave us a stack of his books and there are some that have been read through.
 
Katie: What was your reaction to the Bush Administration’s lack of reaction to Hurricane Katrina?
 
Chris #2:  I think that everyone was just in shock and so angered at the lack of care for poor people.  I think that Kanye West got it half right; I think that Bush doesn’t care about poor people.  I don’t think it’s so much of a race issue as it is a social class issue though.  We have a song on the new record and it touches on this very issue.  If you look at New Orleans, Sudan and Darfur-these places are experiencing so much poverty.  There’s a genocide happening right now in Darfur that the US vowed would never happen again after Rwanda.  Then, if you look at New Orleans, the people are so poor that it’s almost like they don’t care.  There is no economic gain to come out of it. The only thing that you can do is try to expose these people for what they are and hope that people will get involved in some way.  For example, we’re working closely with the Genocide Intervention Network Fund. One of the things that they’re bringing up is that a lot of colleges have endowment funds and they’re giving money to the government of Sudan, supporting the causes of genocide.  I think that the only way to really have a view on something like Katrina is not only to scratch the surface but also the ways to solve it.
 
Katie: Going into writing this album, because there was so much criticism to which label you were releasing it on, was there more of an incentive to really make this record hit hard?
 
Chris #2: You know what? The record was written before we signed to any label. We wrote the record thinking that it was going to come out on Fat Wreck. So, no.  We wrote the record from September through January, so it was pretty much done before we had discussions about how and where to release it. To be honest, the criticism is not as bad as we thought it would be or interviewers are making it out to be. I really feel like the people that are upset with this decision have been upset with other Anti-Flag decisions in the past and have really given up on us as a band.  I have gotten a lot of positive remarks from people who will give us the benefit of the doubt because they don’t know all aspects of the agreement; people who look at their CD collections and realize that a lot of bands who sign to major labels put out shitty records and a lot put out great records.  Anti-Flag is going to make an Anti-Flag record regardless of the company that’s putting money into it and promoting it.  None of us in the band feel any remorse for spending RCA’s money on our ideals.  It’s money they were going to spend on someone else anyway.
 
Katie: Those people who gave up on Anti-Flag...what do you hope they took Away?
 
Chris #2: Mostly political activism.  I think that it’s one of the things that I read about most when I get e-mails or whenever someone sends me a link to an interview and there are comments on it.  We wish that people would still hang out and come to shows and listen to the records, but if that’s what they took from it then fuck yeah man, it worked.  I have no problems with someone moving on. It’s totally cool, but sometimes people are moving on for the wrong reasons and they’re missing out on a lot of important issues that a lot of bands in the underground and the under-underground aren’t even talking about.  I think it’s important to discuss these issues on every level. You can’t focus on the negative, you have to focus on the positives or you’ll want to blow your head off!
 
 
Katie: What sets For Blood and Empire apart different? How did you approach this record and was there anything that was left out of it?
 
Chris #2: I feel like with the record, we really tried to make it almost conceptual in the sense that we felt like we were going out and targeting our current government not only in the US but as citizens of the world. Project for New American Century started in 1997, and its board was made up of 18 ghastly individuals, ten of which currently serve in the bush regime.  The goal of this project is to flex American military muscle and scare the world into believing that the US as a lone superpower should have dominance over the worlds’ recourses.  During the Clinton administration, they were sending Clinton doctrines and policies they felt like he should follow.  They had to do with the invasions of Iraq, Afghanistan, North Korea and Syria; all places that the current administration is now dealing with or talking about dealing with.  In their doctrine, they called for a Pearl Harbor-esque event to happen in the US.  If you fast forward from 1997 to 2001, and the events of 9/11 which were used to rally American support for the events in Afghanistan and Iraq…that’s where it really hit home.
 
That’s what we based the record on, to alert people that this isn’t a new happening. This is planned and strategic and evil as its purest.  The only way that it’s going to stop is if people know what’s going on.  What that has to do with the rest of the record is simple:  all of the things that we encounter in day to day life.  There’s a song on the record that deals with the weight on our shoulders as young people who are berated with images of unattainable beauty.  It’s part of the plan to keep each one of us as apathetic and socially down as possible.  But, beyond it being scary and negative, the positives of this album is that we as individuals of the world have created these subcultures all around the world that are now really primed and ready to have an impact and have a place for people to go and have a home and not be beaten.  With every decision, it really is about using the opportunities you’re faced with to have impact.  That’s the goal of For Blood and Empire-to use whatever we’re faced with whether it be touring or record companies or songs to hopefully have an impact on people and alert them to certain issues in the world.
 
 
**For more information on some of the causes mentioned in this interview, please visit:
www.peta2.com
www.newamericancentury.org
www.genocideinterventionfund.og
www.michaelmoore.com
www.anti-flag.com